Joan C. Bennett

Mrs. Joan C. Bennett, 84 years old, died Thursday, May 11 at the Anne Arundel Medical Center, after being stricken on May 8 with a massive brain aneurysm. Joan Carolyn Lefever was born on January 4, 1939, near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to Joseph and Erma Sample Lefever. While growing up on her parents’ dairy farm, Joan helped with the cows and with the tobacco and eggplant crops that her father, Joe, planted each year. Upon graduation from high school (1957), she spent an additional year on the farm, working to save money to pay for her tuition at Wesley College, then a two-year institution in Dover, Delaware. Joan was the first person on either side of her family to attend college.

After graduating from Wesley College in 1960, with an Associates’ degree in English, she transferred to Washington, D.C’s George Washington University, where she graduated in 1962, with a B.A. in Business and Marketing. While working in D.C., she met a young veteran of the US Air Force, John Bennett, who then was serving as an officer on the DC Metropolitan Police Force. Joan and John were married in 1964, and they enjoyed nearly 48 years together. They were truly a team, in everything they did.

During her 50-year professional career, Joan primarily worked in political and charitable direct marketing profession. Her last position, which she held for 13+ years, was as the executive director of the Educational Foundation of the Direct Marketing Association of Washington, D.C., known as the DMAW.

For nearly 35 years, she and her close friend, the late John L. Whitehead, travelled to the capital cities of 47 of America’s 50 states, where they researched and collected literally scores of millions of campaign donor names and related information, for inclusion in the numerous direct mail files that they created for their clients. These business clients including Richard Viguerie’s RAVCO, List America, inc., Atlantic List, inc., Arthur Brill & Associates, the USA Mailing List corp., Mayflower Lists, L.L.C., American Target Advertising and other highly satisfied direct marketers throughout the national capital area metro-plex

Joan and John Bennett also were extensively involved in real estate and they enjoyed attending auctions, where, for decades, they purchased items for their own enjoyment and usage and for their many friends, neighbors and professional associates. Mrs. Bennett also assisted John with his demolition and salvaging operations, which, upon his retirement from the DC Metro Police Dept., became his full-time profession. Joan Bennett was predeceased by her husband in 2012, her mother, Erma, in 2004, her father, Joseph, in 1987, and her close friend, John L. Whitehead, in Dec., 2022. She is survived by her sister, Nancy Lou Lefever, of Towson, MD, and by her longtime friend, Todd Blodgett, of Clear Lake, Iowa.

“It would be hard, if not impossible,” Mr. Blodgett told us, “to find anyone who is anywhere near as kind, genuine and as truly sweet as Joan Bennett. She was a friend to nearly everyone she met, and she’d do almost anything for anybody. May this wonderful lady now rest in peace, as she is reunited with her parents, her husband and many friends, from all the stages of her long life, and from all walks of life.”

A ‘Celebration of Life’ honoring Joan Bennett will be held on September 23,2 023 from noon to 3 PM, at her home on Valley View Road, on Cape St. John, in Annapolis.